ECU, higher education in the news

Recently, I read with dismay an article in The Daily Reflector about three East Carolina University administrators’ actions to prevent marching band members from further peaceful protests, which took the form of quietly resting on one knee during the playing of the National Anthem.

Dozens of University of Wyoming student athletes gathered in the stands of the Arena-Auditorium, but it wasn’t for a sporting event. They were there to talk about sexual assault and rape, reported the Laramie Boomerang.

North Carolina residents and organizations challenging House Bill 2 asked a federal appeals court to schedule arguments in January on their request to block enforcement of the six-month-old law against all transgender people before their lawsuit goes to trial.

The last five times that the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education and its faculty union tried to hash out a new collective-bargaining agreement, the union had voted to authorize a strike. Once it set a strike date. But in each of those instances, the two sides managed to come to an agreement. This time they weren’t so lucky. After months of negotiations failed to result in a new agreement, the union rejected the system officials’ final offer and declared a strike early Wednesday

As students and employees continue to deal with the aftermath of severe flooding in Greenville and other areas of North Carolina, East Carolina University will open a Disaster Recovery Center to aid those affected.

An East Carolina University professor is disappointed Pitt County commissioners did not support her efforts to change a state law preventing permitted concealed gun carriers from bringing their weapons onto college campuses.

When a University of Virginia student confided in Nicole Eramo that she had been gang raped at a fraternity, Eramo says she took the shocking account seriously — so seriously that she referred the student to police, twice.

After student government voted to impose a student fee to raise money to improve the University of Maryland’s ability to handle claims of campus sexual assault — an apparently unprecedented move, according to several national experts — university leaders have agreed to hire more staff to address the problem.

More Greenville-area residents were able to return home Monday as the Tar River continued to recede, including folks at the Cypress Glen retirement community who got a helping hand from volunteers who moved sandbags, vacuumed rugs and washed windows.

The Wilmington driver of a vehicle that rear-ended a New Hanover County School bus Thursday on Interstate 40 in Sampson County died as a result of the wreck, according to the N.C. State Highway Patrol.

The board will hold its regularly scheduled meeting at 6 p.m. At that meeting, East Carolina University professor Tracy Tuten is scheduled to discuss concealed carry laws. Tuten made headlines earlier this month when she announced she was going to carry a gun on campus in response to members of ECU’s marching band kneeling during a performance of the national anthem. Tuten did not follow through after ECU police contacted her and said carrying a gun on campus was a violation of North Carolina statute.

East Carolina University and Pitt Community College are planning to resume classes, and Pitt County Schools is calling back teachers, but challenges from Hurricane Matthew continue. Classes will resume at East Carolina University Tuesday, according to an ECU Alert sent Friday afternoon. Employees will be under Condition 1 of the UNC System Adverse Weather Policy from 5 p.m. Friday through 5 p.m. Monday.

CHAPEL HILL — A state General Assembly spending-rules rewrite has the chief of one of the UNC system’s four largest schools feeling his campus got shortchanged in the latest distribution of state building-repair money.

Eleven Vidant Health nurses will be among the 2016 Great 100 Nurses to be honored at a gala event on Saturday in Greensboro. The Great 100 Nurses, a nonprofit organization, creates peer recognition among North Carolina’s registered nurses and awards excellence in practice and commitment to the nursing profession.

Vidant Medical Group and the Department of Emergency Medicine at the Brody School of Medicine at East Carolina University on Oct. 1 began providing emergency medicine services at The Outer Banks Hospital in Nags Head. “Connecting The Outer Banks Hospital to the Brody School of Medicine along with Vidant Medical Group was an easy decision,” Ronnie Sloan, president of The Outer Banks Hospital, said. “Our residents and visitors will now have access to decades of emergency medicine experience and high-quality local providers that live here and are part of our community.”

East Carolina University physical therapy students are gaining valuable career experience and improving access to care for patients through a new, student-run clinic. Launched in July, the clinic is a partnership with ECU Physicians’ Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Center. It’s an extension of the patient-focused, interdisciplinary care that is taught across ECU health sciences programs, said Dr. Christine Lysaght, clinical assistant professor in physical therapy.